I Am Afia Megha Abhimanyu Omar

I Am Afia, Megha, Abhimanyu, Omar. Not the name of one movie. Not the names of the lead characters either. But 4 different stories. Each dealing with a topic that is extremely sensitive and has been portrayed quite boldly on screen. 4 short stories with a minor extent of intertwining through the appearance of one stray character somewhere in the story who is the lead character in the other. I Am is directed by Onir, who seems to have finally got his sense of direction in place. He seemed to have lost interest in film making with Bas Ek Pal and I was dead certain that he has lost his ability to direct with Sorry Bhai!!! It would seem that our man, who coincidentally was born in Bhutan, seems to have found his groove. Now, I haven’t seen My Brother… Nikhil yet and therefore am ill equipped to comment on whether he had it in the first place. But with I Am, Onir seems to have pushed back his detractors just that little bit. In a little under 100 minutes he has been ably supported with screenplay by Urmi Juvekar of “Oye Lucky Lucky Oye” fame and Merle Kroeger.


The first story is - Afia (Nandita Das), a 30+ woman whose only goal in life seems to be motherhood. Her husband, however, isn’t ready for the concept of fatherhood. While he keeps stalling her attempts, he is also happily cheating on her with another woman. A few months after he leaves Afia, she finds him with a visibly pregnant wife – shattering her even further. That’s when she decides to take the route of artificial insemination.

Afia’s friend Megha (Juhi Chawla) is clearly against the concept. But has problems of her own. Her ancestral place in Srinagar has to be sold off and she is extremely circumspect about going there today. A Kashmiri Pandit by birth, the scars of being forced out of her own land and leading a life that was far from enviable has built a sense of disgust and angst against the very people who she grew up with. She does build up the courage to fly over and complete the formalities but all through the visit, she is nothing but crabby towards Rubina (Manisha Koirala) who used to be her closest friend.

Afia’s business associate Abhimanyu (Sanjay Suri) is quite shocked when she asks him to donate sperm for the procedure. Abhi has been bought up in a household where his step father (Anurag Kashyap) would abuse him when his mother was away. Abhi is now bisexual and doesn’t quite value relationships as much as he should.

Abhi was involved in a minor fling at one time with Jay (Rahul Bose). Jay has been a victim of a con job at the hands of Omar (Arjun Mathur) and a cop (Abhimanyu Singh) in the days preceding amendment of Article 377.

The usually popular names – Manisha, Juhi, Nandita Das and Sanjay Suri falter with their performances all through the movie. But the dependable Rahul Bose comes up with a solid performance yet again. Ditto for Purab Kohli who is fast growing into a mature actor who can comfortably hold his own. I do hope to see more of Purab in the coming days cause I believe his best is yet to come. Rounding off the cast is probably one of India’s best actors today – Abhimanyu Singh – who yet again delivers a splendid performance in the small but pivotal role of a corrupt cop who abuses his position not just for sexual favours of a gay kind but also for extortion. What disappointed me with Juhi and Manisha – and I guess they aren’t to blame for it – was the obvious struggle to speak Kashmiri. Now I am no language expert per se but I do understand when people are struggling to speak a tongue that is not native to them.

In a nut shell, I Am is a well made movie with some good performances and definitely worth a dekko. But for certain only meant for the mature audience. I was honestly not surprised with the laughter that erupted in the hall during the stories of Abhimanyu and Omar. We live in a country of literates but not educated. Watch it if you can. Don’t know if it is still playing though. wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t. 6 on 10 from my side.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdWQZFFGdBA

Rakht Charitra

This one is based on a true story – But ironically claims that all characters are fictional and that any resemblance to a person living or dead is purely coincidence – Now that’s what u call playing to the laws of the land. The funny part is that both these claims follow each other at the beginning of the movie itself. Now hows that for absolute irony. Based on the story of Paritala Ravindra, this one is everything that you can expect out of an RGV biography. Home Territory as one would call it. This is RGVs backyard. This is what RGV does best. And he comes reasonably close to his previous best.

Ananthapur is a district in Andhra Pradesh where Jungle Law prevails. It is led by and completely controlled by Narasimha Reddy, the local politician. His right hand man from the lower caste (wonder why this was beeped out in the movie) is Veerbhadra (Rajendra Gupta). He painstakingly helps Narasimha build his empire over 2 decades. And on Narasimha’s insistence goes ahead with the listings for the upcoming elections. Obviously he favours people who are closer to the so called downtrodden and thereby gives the people hope of a brighter future.

Unbeknownst to him, Nagamani Reddy (Kota Srinivasa Rao), yet another close associate of Narasimha Reddy is extremely upset with the turn of events which is taking away a lot of power from the upper classes (which coincidentally is not beeped out). He starts sowing seeds of doubt in Narasimha’s mind of how VB is misusing the power and tarnishing his image with the lower classes. Wonder why Narasimha never looks at checking up on these claims but directly takes away all power from VB. VB is obviously incensed about this entire episode and decides that he doesn’t need the lead party’s support. Goes ahead and launches his own challenge to fight the elections. Not a good idea Mr. VB. Remember – Jungle Law prevails. Obviously the result is his death – brutally murdered by his own kin – Manda (Ashish Vidyarthi) – who is threatened by Nagamani.

All hell breaks lose after this. Shankar (Sushant Singh) who is VBs elder son leaves the town for the jungle and starts plotting the revenge plan on his father’s killers. Simultaneously news reaches Pratap (Viveik Oberoi) who, at that time has just returned after discussing his plans to marry Nandini (Radhika Apte). He returns back to see an ocean of blood all over and his brother leading the revenge. Only a matter of time before he has to jump into the slug fest coz Shankar is also killed by the local cops who are hand in glove with Nagamani.

RGV’s home turf as I had mentioned earlier. Music is atypical Sanskrit Shlokas in the background. Some unnecessary stuff songs thrown in for bad measure. Could have done without it. And then there is the kicker in the shitter – There is RC2 releasing on November 19th 2010. Now how is that for squeezing the market dry. Smart Marketing RGV Saar!!!! Glad to say that VO is back although his entry could have been much better than riding on a scooter in slow motion!!!! Come on guys lets give the guy his due. But the absolute stand out performances are by Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh who plays the role of the disgusting despicable Bukka Rao – Nagamani’s son and by Kota Srinivasa Rao who plays Nagamani. Super performances by both. Overall RC1 is a 6 on 10. Not too close to Sarkar which was much better executed. Don’t think RC2 is going to be too great. But will be worth a dekko I guess.